technology
Adelaide’ s path to transformation
A major initiative at Adelaide University aims to harness all aspects of technology to deliver a richer student experience. By Dallas Bastian
A
10-year plan to transform the way technology is integrated into learning and the campus experience is under way at the University of Adelaide. New exercises, devices and staff will be introduced to change the way e-learning is approached, and a campus centre will be established, where staff can work on digital projects. The aim is to create an engaged experience for students, where technology and IT professionals will encourage student discovery.
Mark Gregory, University of Adelaide CIO, talks about how the IT plan, officially the Beacon of Enlightenment Strategic Plan 2013- 2023, will transform the institution.
WHAT DOES THE 10-YEAR IT PLAN ENTAIL? In terms of the classroom, we’ re seeking out the ideal balance between space and technology to successfully deliver smallgroup discovery learning, which is the cornerstone of the University of Adelaide experience.
In terms of student services, we’ re looking at how students interact with the university from the time they first inquire through to becoming alumni. We want to be sure those experiences are convenient and friendly – so we’ re looking at both web and mobile tools, and also our customer relationship management systems.
We’ re also going to be working on learning analytics, which will give us better insight into the challenges students face.
There’ ll also be a great deal more work undertaken in business operations and research support.
HOW MUCH OF THE PLAN HAS ALREADY BEEN ENACTED? The technology investment started to ramp up this year. We’ ve just completed some new systems for fundraising support and online learning tool improvements, and we’ re upgrading some legacy systems. We’ re also in the process of recruiting additional staff to assist with the roll out of the plan.
We do plenty of benchmarking and surveys to ensure we’ re on target, but the technology is only here to support excellent student experience and instructional and research quality.
WHAT TECHNOLOGIES WILL BE INTEGRATED INTO THE UNIVERSITY? It’ s a pretty long list – this year alone we’ re undertaking more than 30 active projects.
We’ re looking at becoming much more platform agnostic and mobile friendly by delivering apps with virtual desktop approaches, at moving any desired financial transaction to a suite of pre-built e-commerce offerings, supporting cloud storage for staff, taking several different approaches to course content and lecture capture, much more sophisticated business intelligence especially for our students’ success and retention factors and, of course, our basic infrastructure is evolving so we’ ll be offering faster wireless, faster research networks and more cost effective storage and printing.
WHAT ARE THE POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF THE PLAN FOR STUDENTS AND STAFF? Great technology offerings help students to get more from the educational experience at the university – to be exposed to more content, to be better prepared for careers, to collaborate better and to experience their chosen study in a deep and meaningful way. Also they will be able to perform administrative tasks in their own time online.
A great student experience happens on campus. Some course content, some social contacts and most transactional aspects of a quality university experience can be online, but the rich and memorable campus experience will happen in person with peers and faculty members. We want to perfect how that campus time is used – we want students coming to campus to engage, create and discover – not to wait in queues for services, to pick up instructional content or to hand things in. Technology, campus planning and operations staff are partnering with the academic leaders to perfect this experience.
The future of technology is more flexible, with more choice of device, operating environment, teaching tools and methods. We’ re now operating a 24 / 7 help desk for common calls, which improves staff support. Teaching staff will also benefit from our accelerated investment in learning spaces and classroom technology. ■ campusreview. com. au | 29